Political cars

Elections will have to wait, now I want to talk about political cars.

Cars are important in this country, both in the cities because they are now built as US cities in which cars are a must (but also due to the heat which makes walking uncomfortable, lack of effective public transportation in the cities, despite the new Metro, and the lack of sidewalks), but also in the rural areas due to distances and other factors. Not only are cars important, but due to the low quality of the roads and a host of other reasons (such as the importance of looking good in your car, social status, road security, and just be bigger than the others), the DR is the country (or at least last time I checked 3 years back) with the highest proportion of SUVs compared to other cars in the world. That is quite impressive for a country that is not among the richest Latin American nations.

This blog posting, however is about political cars, and I will mention three models: The old WV Beetle (Cepillo), BMW (of the early 1980s) and the Toyota Land Rover Prado. All of these cars have gained a bad reputation among the Dominican people.

A curious fact about the DR since the 1960s it has been almost impossible to see the VW Beetle in the streets of the country. This is a surprise for several reasons. First of all the Beetle has been one of the most sold cars worldwide. And another reason is that it has been popular in Latin America since it was rather economical, but also produced in Mexico and Brazil. The reason for the lack of Beetles, or Cepillos, in the DR is that they were used by the notorious secret police SIM (Servicio de Intelegencia Militar) led by the hated and deceiptful Johnny Abbes under the Trujillo regime. The black Beetles would be driven around the cities and towns to spread fear and keep people under tight control by the regime. As in most authoritarian regime, the secret police would find a way to oversee any activity, suspicious or not, and know as many details as possible about as many as possible. After Trujillo was assassined on May 30 1961, his regime and SIM soon fell apart. Since the Beetle was identified and linked to violence, disappearances, and other atrocities, nobody wanted to buy it after Trujillo fell. Therefore, you can only today, as well as earlier, only find a handful of these cars across the country.

BMW is another german brand that is very popular worldwide, although somewhat more luxurious and expensive than the Beetle. And it is due to the price and luxuriousness of this car that it has a special political history in the DR. After 12 years of conservative rule by Joaquín Balaguer, who served as president under the Trujillo regime, the social-democratic opposition party, PRD (Partido Revolucionario Dominicano) won the presidency in 1978 and again in 1982. In 1978 it was Antonio Guzmán who served as president, a man who today is respected for guiding the country through the transition to democracy and for being honest and not corrupt. Other parts of his government, including President Guzmán's daughter, however, were accused of corruption. In 1982 Salvador Jorge Blanco won the presidency for the PRD promising democracy with social justice, and focusing on social redistribution a factor he felt had been neglected under the Guzmán presidency. 1982 (and the 1980s in general), however, was not a good year for Latin America, and the DR soon were facing tough economic battles, which led to several rounds of inflation and devaluation of the Dominican Peso (which some years back had been pegged to the US dollar at 1:1). In midst of an economic crisis (which the government managed quite well, actually), however, many people linked to the government started driving around in fancy new BMWs, and showing off money which the newly rich like to do. The contrast between the economic troubles and the apparent corruption was stark, and the Jorge Blanco government therefore (maybe undeserved) has been remembered as one of the more corrupt governments in modern history. BMW came to be linked to this corruption and the governing party, the PRD, and suddenly became a very unpopular car. You would not like to be seen driving around in such a car in the years after Jorge Blanco left the presidency in 1986 since everyone would assume you got the car for free (or free of any taxes) from the government, and that you were corrupt. BMWs therefore became unpopular and were a rare sight for many years. Walking around Santo Domingo today, however, I see that the newly rich lack knowledge of history or just plainly don't mind, and drive around in the newest, biggest and fastest BMWs you can get your hands on.

Today another brand is tarnished by connections to the government, but today the contrast between the cars the middle and upper middle classes drive and the government-friendly groups drive, is diminished. As mentioned above, the DR has the highest proportion of SUVs compared to other cars in the world. Therefore it is only natural that the government has advanced from a BMW to a Yipeta as they say over here. For a long time it was the Mitsubishi Montero (or Pajero in most other non-Spanish speaking countries) that was popular in government circles, but the recent Leonel governments has taken it up a notch. Now it is the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, commonly known as the Prado, which is the government Yipeta. You will see them with official licence plates (OC) driving around Santo Domingo in the weeks, and all over the country in the weekends when government employees travel back home or on weekend trips. People are annoyed by the Prado for several reasons. There are many of them and it is a luxury car. In fact, I think, including all brands, that there are more official cars (license plate OC) in Santo Domingo than there are diplomatic cars (License plate CD) in Brussels which is home to EU, NATO, a load of embassies, etc. Many also seem to be annoyed with the fact that people driving these cars today were in no position to drive such cars before entering government. In other words they have become richer than what their social status before Leonel allowed for (i.e. undeserving rich). Today, however, many people drive around in luxury cars in the capital. Walking around certain areas in Santo Domingo seems like walking around in Hollywood (although I have never been there) considering the cars people drive. Therefore the stigma of the Prado is much weaker than what is was for the BMW 25 years ago, but it is strong enough that I think that if Mejía of the PRD wins the election, the Prado will be out and new Yipetas will come in (my bet is on big Ford models, actually).

There are clearly other stigmatised political cars in the DR as well, Hyundai models from the 2002 Pan-American games is one example, the buses under the first Leonel government is another, the three above, however, are the most notorious. If any reader should know of more car-stories like this in the DR or other places, please comment.